istinct voice:

"I really must be excused for asking. I'm a stranger, you know; but is
there such a lady here as Mrs. Craggs--Mrs. _Cromwell_ Craggs? For, if
so, the present doorkeeper would like to see Mrs. Cromwell Craggs."

Then came the turn of the fat lady to be laughed at; but out she had to
go and get kissed like the rest of us. Before the close of the evening
Billy was made as jealous as his parents and I were surprised to see
Daniel in close conversation with Miss Pilgrim among the geraniums and
fuchsias of the conservatory.

"A regular flirtation," said Billy, somewhat indignantly. The conclusion
which they arrived at was that after all no great harm had been done,
and that the dear little fellow ought not to be peached on for his fun.
If I had known at the time how easily they forgave him, I should have
suspected that the offence Billy had led Daniel into committing was not
unlikely to be repeated on the offender's own account; but so much as I
could see showed me that the ice was broken.

Billy's jealousy did not outlast the party. He became more and more
interested in "his girl," and often went in the afternoon, after getting
out of school, ostensibly to play with Jimmy. Daniel's calls, according
to adult etiquette, made in the evening, did not interfere with my
younger nephew's, and as neither knew that the other, after his fashion,
was his most uncompromising rival, my position, as the confidant of
both, was one of extreme delicacy. But the matter was more speedily
settled than I expected.

Billy came to me one day and told me that he intended to get married
immediately; that he was going to speak to his Lottie that very
afternoon. He was prepared to meet every objection. He had asked his
father if he might, and his father said yes, if he had money enough to
support a wife--and Billy thought he had. He'd saved up all the money
his Uncle Jim and Aunt Jane had sent him for Christmas; and besides, if
he were once married, his father wouldn't see him want for stamps, he
knew. Then, too, he was going to leave school and be a merchant next
year--and I'd help him now and then, if he got hard up, wouldn't I?
If he were driven to it, he could be a good boy again, and save up the
money to buy Lottie presents with, instead of giving it to nasty old
"Objecks." He was so much older than when he had the savings-bank that
he ought to have at least ten cents a day now for being good; didn't
I think that was fair? As